Ocean : revealing the secrets of the deep / Bryan Richard

Includes index.

Introduction 6 -- The Giver of Life 8 -- Ocean Dynamics 10 -- Life in the Oceans 36 -- The Ocean Edge 48 -- Coral Reef 188 -- The Open Ocean 220 -- The Abyss 254 -- Man and the Oceans 288 -- Index 316 -- Acknowledgments 320

Much is already understood about the oceans, from the reason for their characteristic hue to the role they play in climatic phenomena such as tornadoes, tsunamis and El Nino. But they are also the last great wilderness on earth. Light penetrates only to a depth around 200 metres; below lies a dark world of extraordinary topography and remarkable creatures. There are mountain ranges that dwarf the Andes, and trenches so deep that if Mount Everest were deposited there, it would still find itself covered by over a mile of sea water. The coelacanth, thought to be extinct before 1938, can claim the title of the ocean's dinosaur since fossil records show it to be at least 400 million years old. And textbooks had to be rewritten when the megamouth shark was first sighted in 1976. What other, as yet undiscovered, species inhabit the depths? Ocean examines every facet of this remarkable environment, from plate tectonics to the effects of the moon, phytoplankton to blue whales. It traces Man's efforts to probe the deep in the aid of scientific discovery; it also covers the environment, the ramifications of which remain uncertain. Mankind began to look outward with the dawn of the space era in the 1950s. This book shows that seventy per cent of the Earth's surface is a source of wonder whose secrets have yet to be fully revealed.